Possessives

Sofia can’t find her book and enlists Lucas to help her with the search. This story uses simple vocabulary and common verbs in the present tense.

Ester agrees to participate in a statistical study about Mafra families by answering a few questions.

The purpose of this Learning Note is to address a common question we get from learners after they’ve finished our Unit about possessives in European Portuguese. The question is about when to use definite articles before possessive determiners/pronouns, and when they can be dropped. In other words, what’s the difference between Eles são os meus […]

In Portuguese, when studying narrative texts, we make the distinction between direct and indirect speech. Direct speech is spoken by a character, while indirect speech is spoken by a narrator, in the third-person. Each is clearly defined by different punctuation, but the verb tenses and conjunctions are different too. In real life, everything is technically […]

Remember definite articles? They’re the little words that mean the in Portuguese. They correspond to the gender (masculine or feminine) and number (singular or plural) of the item in reference, so there are 4 possibilities: o, a, os, and as. However, it’s not always as simple as just replacing the with o, a, os, or as. […]

Maria is pregnant and just moved in to a new home. She loves cooking and decorating, so she invites her cousin Diogo over for dinner and a tour.

Practice possessive pronouns / determiners in this dialogue about Afonso’s birthday plans.

Rita realizes that she has quite a bit in common with Marcelo’s siblings! Listen for lots of possessive pronouns and possessive determiners throughout their conversation.

Adriano tells us about each member of his family. Toggle on the Translate button and explore the differences between the verbs ser and estar, the verbs that mean “to be”. For this episode, let’s focus more on exploring the language, instead of comprehending what you hear. Listen once and then go through line by line, […]

Isabel goes to a party where she doesn’t know anyone, so Eduardo tells her about each of the guests.

Menus might be missing at this restaurant’s table, but a courteous waiter is eager to keep a new customer satisfied.

Dele vs seu? When forming 3rd person possessives in European Portuguese, how do we decide when to use dele, dela, deles, delas  vs.  seu, sua, seus, suas? Both ways are correct, so there’s no need to stress. It’s just a matter of whether you’re providing enough clarity / specificity. When in doubt: dele/dela/deles/delas is usually […]